The 50 Most Deadly Cities in the World

A toxic combination of organized crime, drug trafficking, internecine gang wars, government corruption, and desperate poverty have merged to form the world's most brutal, murderous region: Latin America.

According to the UN via Business Insider, Latin America now boasts 28% of the world's homicides despite clocking in at only 8% of world population. The most murderous city on the entire planet, San Pedro Sula in Honduras, now has over 169 homicides per 100,000 residents. Unlike every other city in the rankings except for Distrito Central (which came in at #4), that number is based on 2011 statistics, because local authorities were unwilling to cooperate with the study, which was conducted by Mexico's Citizens' Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice.

Statistics do not include war zones or areas where the murder rate is not reported by the authorities.

(Update: This story previously cited Business Insider as the source of a statistic that Latin America commits 40% of reported world homicides. That statistic was from several years ago and the story has been updated accordingly.)